I'm going to start this AP sometime in the next few months, and my players want to end the trilogy by fighting Mhar.
They did accidentally end up contributing to the Rise of Mhar in the first AP.
The problem is, I've never done anything Mythical before, and neither have my players. I have an idea of how to set this up, which I'll tinker with as the AP goes on.
Spoiler:
I plan to give them their first Mythic Tier via deicide at the end of Chapter 4; their second after their meeting in Stethelos; and the third at the very end of the AP.
Mhar is CR 28, but the PCs will hopefully have an alliance with Sorshen, Belimarius, and their other PCs directing Hellknights of the Nail firing at Mhar with their +5 Freezing Burst Catapults.
Under the current Drug Rules, you have to make two Fort Saves when using one; the first to see if you don't actually use it (though if you want to use it, you'll voluntarily Fail it), and the second to see if you get an Addiction. Addictions work like a disease, with a new Save each week to see if you improve. You can suppress addiction by using whatever drug gave you the addiction, but it might make that addiction worse.
If you're of a high-enough Level or have Legendary Fort Saves, there's nothing stopping you from speedballing one of everything (other than that beneficial First Stage lasting only a minute sometimes), and even if you do fail that save, a cleric can cure that right up.
Now that we have Alchemy Food, I want to rework drugs into basically Alchemy Food With Downsides.
That way, pesh can stay cheaper than waffles while still having reasons to prefer the waffles over the drug (for one example)
The House Rules for Drugs
If a drug is Ingested or Injury, it needs only 1 Interact Action to use. If a drug is Inhaled, it requires anywhere from 1-10 minutes of Interacting, which can be done alongside other actions. In either case, they can all have predictable onset times in case people all want to use them together. Their usage gets factored into their onset times, as well.
Fort Saves stay the same, but instead, they're only used if you don't want to use a drug (in case someone slipped you one, or everyone's smoking flayleaf around here and you say no to it).
At least two effects happen at once, lasting for the drug's Maximum Duration. Usually, one is beneficial while the others are not.
With a Medicine check against a Moderate DC of the level of the drug's Item Level, someone examining a user can tell if the user is under the effects of a drug, or has used one within the past week. A Critical Failue results in a misdiagnosis.
For simplicity's sake, you can only ever be under the effects of one drug at a time. Or, if you try to use one while already under the effects of another drug, you get all the Not-Good Effects and none of the Good ones.
The GM might call your character an addict. NPCs might notice your withdrawl symptoms. You might want to ask the clergy to pray your addiction away. Work this out with the GM and Player.
Here are some example re-worked drugs:
Flayleaf (Alchemical, Consumable, Drug, Ingested/Inhaled, Poison) Level 0
Price: 1 GP. Usage: Held in 1 Hand. Bulk: L. Activate: 1 (Interact)
Onset: 10 Minutes. Duration: 4 Hours.
Effects: You treat Saving Throws against pain as 1 degree better, but are also Fatigued.
Pesh (Alchemical, Consumable, Drug, Inhaled, Poison) Level 1
Price: 2 GP. Usage: Held in 1 Hand. Bulk: L. Activate: 10 Minutes (Interact)
Onset: 10 Minutes. Duration: 6 Hours.
Effects: 1 Temporary HP/Level; +2 Item Bonus on saves vs. fear; Clumsy 1; Stupefied 1.
Zerk (Alchemical, Consumable, Drug, Injury, Poison) Level 4
Price: 20 GP. Usage: Held in 1 Hand. Bulk: L. Activate: 1 (Interact)
Onset: 1 Minutes. Duration: 1 Hour.
Effects: +2 Item Bonus on Perception-based Initiative; +2 to Melee Damage on the first attack you make against someone you haven't yet attacked while high on Zerk (after which you might lose interest); Drained 1.
After two long years (about a third of which was full of session cancellations), the Sihedron Council managed to rebuild the Shattered Star and show it to the late Emperor one last time.
(Due to adjustments I made to the AP, they also found that the Shattered Star was never actually shattered in the first place - Xin mailed a shard to each of his apprentices, with incomplete information on how to put them together. Instead of working together to finish it, they fought over which one would build it singularly, and worked together to send an assassin after him during a loss of the anti-teleportation ward in his palace.)
Their names:
Gaius Stormshield née Gaius Coruncanius Vettonianus (Chelish human Armiger Fighter/Hellknight)
Torsten Ironbrew, Chirurgeon Alchemist with a dip in Fighter (The last remaining heir to some of Janderhoff's lost brewing secrets)
Purrcible McCoy, Rahadoumi Amurran Wisdom Witch (who later, after having met the metzlan, decided to learn their ways by tossing his familiar aside and retraining into Oozemorph)
Here is their denoument.
Lockerbie & Liza Jane Brast remained as, y'know, sewer custodians. They made sure to only eat derro crawling up from the Darklands, which kept happening surprisingly often.
The Tower Girls, under leadership of Ayala, helped people out of the flooding and made sure that people got their necessities while their homes were drying out. The reputation of the Sczarni as a whole improved in Magnimar, and the Nailers had to put that in their pipes and smoke it!
The Order of the Nail, their sterling reputation polished further by their organized handling of citizens during the Rise of the Isle of Xin and subsequent repairs, served them well in their other pursuits. Not only shall they bring their hammers down on the remaining cultists of the region, but they shall soon stamp out the lawless Sczarni threat once and for all!
The xulgath of these lands left the loathsome boggards and their hag friend to the Lady's Cape. Forced into letting bugbears offer their idea of help, they still rob river-goers in the south. Some went north, to turn to the World Thunder. The xulgath as a whole face hard times.
Maroux finally got some peace and quiet. Screw all y'all!
Kanya & Herifax lived a fast, carefree life, squandering all the stuff they were given. Eventually Fufu the Lurker ate them, but they were so overdosed, they didn't mind, or notice really.
Despite having received little funding, the most of which had come from Korvosa, Windsong Abbey saw itself rebuilt, with the help of some penitent giants. There is now a chapel - small to a giant - dedicated to both Aegirran, the Sea Dreamer, and Minderhal, the stone giant god of justice. Pilgrims have begun to return to Windsong, including, bemusingly, at least one Groetesian.
Worship of Lisalla, in any organized way, ceased in Varisia. Many former Lisallans, disillusioned or desperate, turned to other faiths. Soralyon, the Mystic Angel, took in some, while others heard Mhar's belching of smoke and molten rock. Others, however, were shown the uncaring light of distant stars, and began to whisper to anyone willing to hear of it, of the benificence of the Crawling Chaos. Their numbers are small, but in the endless length of time, the whole galaxy shall know the power of the Chaotic Evil side!
Shasthaak, rune giant graveknight, returned to the world at large! Having completed his goal of killing Emperor Xin, he set about searching for any remaining presence of his lieges, to inform them of his success!
The Sihedron Council was a brilliant idea from its very beginning, having apparently saved Magnimar twice over. Their former membership of the Pathfinder Society, and their renown throughout the city-state, inspired the people of Magnimar to new heights of literacy, making Magnimar, I daresay, even more highly educated than the backward outpost of Korvosa! They stand vigilant, ready to defend Varisia from dangers of its antiquity. They even managed to recover one of the Seven Swords of Sin, and used it in conjunction with the Sihedron to, well, that's another story.
(Mid-Credits Stinger)
Ogonthunn took the Platinum Key and with it, the entire Clockwork Army of Emperor Xin. Those mouth-breathers discovered their ruse thanks to one of them having conjured a creature with innate True Seeing, but never discovered their real name. They didn't even have to crush anyone's will to get it. Their resistance to saltwater should make the re-subjugation of the Deep Merfolk go more smoothly. (However, Ogonthuun was left unaware that, by the late Emperor's last decree, the next time a clockwork soldier would wind down would be for good)
I'm not talking about just any symbol of Thassilon; I mean THE Sihedron that had a whole AP to it.
(Possible spoilery stuff for 1E APs that might just be history now)
I'd guess it'd be either in New Thassilon or Magnimar's Museum of Ages. In either case, I hope Sorshen & Belimarius get a chance to try it out and find out what their predecessor truly had in mind.
I thought I saw one chapter of an Adventure Path in 1st Edition that includes a mimic. I might be wrong, in which case I don't know if one has ever been in a store-bought adventure.
Does anyone know if a mimic ever shows up, off the tops of your heads? Maybe in a PFS scenario? A module I never bought?
After a horrible shipwreck, we came to the Eleder's Pathfinder lodge with our findings, eventually found out where the lost city was, we eventually managed to figure out what to do. Not only did we set out determined to stop a race war, we spent months after the final conflict working toward reparations.
Here's who ended up calling themselves the Keys of Yhi:
Ael'eraki Valiance, aka Aki:
CG half-elf half-Varisian human alchemist, worshipper of Desna. Crackerjack tinkerer, she made poisons, potions, and went on to learn about constructs. Her stuffed moth came to life and she made it her familiar. She eventually shrunk herself so she could ride Phoen, as it was called. The youngest member of the group, she found herself horrified at the realities of war, resulting in many spa days in Eleder. She went on to travel the world, stopping in Nex to design a giant beetle construct she could call her home.
Abner Little, stage name Roqueforte Passendale:
CG ysoki bard, also from Varisia. A runt in his youth, he finally got to travelling, and ended up on the adventure of a lifetime. He wrote and performed an opera of his adventures, of which disguised serpentfolk insurgents saw its first few acts and expressed their displeasure. His mandolin was inhabited by a vulpinal agathion, who wanted to see where he'd go and what he'd do. After bringing peace to Savinth Yhi, as well as beneath it, he went on a world tour.
Jijitimazoo, though there are some who call him Tim:
N Mwangi kobold monk/rogue/magus, breaker of cults, puncher of gods. He fled his home when demon-worship took hold, and held that violence could solve as many problems as it could cause. He kept asking to engage friends in sparring sessions, figuring he could learn spells that way. He eventually figured out ones like Longarm and Twisted Innards. (Think One Piece, only more body horror)
After having involved himself at the end of one god and the re-ascension of another, he returned home to fight the demon-worship with everything he could at level 17 (which was a lot). He never did stop throwing himself at any challenge that presented itself.
Duvri Kounug:
NG vanara jungle druid, hailing from a small community in the Laughing Jungle. He just wanted to bring a bag of grape seeds and the holy text of empyrial lord Halcamora back home. Instead, he found himself a Pathfinder field agent, protecting people from fire, getting eaten, and jungle humidity. During his travels, he found himself able to make peace with the charu-ka he once thought irredeemable. His love of storms led him to control them, and even temporarily become one. His only 9th-level spell, Winds of Vengeance, even let him become a huge squall wrapped in a slightly bigger squall.
After the first dawn the serpentfolk were able to see in earnest after thousands of years, Duvri gave them a sun shower, followed by a beautiful rainbow. He then spent six months rebuilding damaged architecture in the cities above and below, only to find that he had too much power for any one person in his small village home. So he became Venture-Captain Kounug, set up his own lodge, and went on to pioneer the listicle. He even once became the grape tree everyone didn't know they needed.
Wilfred Wezpol, Crazy Old Man turned Crazy Old King:
CN samsaran transmuter wizard, who cheesed his familiar so much that it ascended to godhood.
Actually, it turned out his familiar was the last vestige of Curchanus, who managed to regain godhood by cannibalizing the remains of Ydersius.
He started out determined to see what Eleder was like because he spent most of his life ignorant of what the Mwangi Expanse was like. Shortly after getting to Savinth Yhi, he stayed put in the Artisan district, crafting like mad. During attempts to sort out everyone's problems, he asked them if they'd be okay with him keeping everything organized, and after everyone agreed, promptly declared himself king.
He spent his rulership researching the Clone spell, then researching a method of achieving immortality so that his reign would last into the forseeable future (or at least until a bunch of psychopomps showed up and kept asking him when would he have all his affairs in order).
On the whole, the AP was enjoyable (most likely due to GM edits) though I was hit hard with the Middle of Serpent's Skull Issue. Between getting swamped by so many sidequests at once and repeated spa days wherein my character, who had CHA 5 (rolling dice for stats makes it fun and exciting, and prevents dump stats!) couldn't really participate for a big chunk of it. Worse, one dungeon crawl had all the other PCs hiding in an expanded extradimensional dwelling carried by mine, who snuck around invisibly; this effectively had the same problem from the other direction.
Fortunately, the end bit was a return to form, because everyone was involved with the whole thing. The battle with the high priest went off almost perfectly, between Wilfred's opening Polar Midnight and god-familiar attacks, Roquefort's many buffs, Aki's holy bombs, Tim's nigh-unhittable AC, easily passable saving throw numbers, and haste qi flurries (monks who roll for stats under generous stat distribution!) and a combination of Duvri's early Great Dispel knocking away Vyr-Azul's buffs and his summoned tyrannosaurs eating Vyr-Azul's bodyguard.
Against the Avatar of Ydersius Reborn, it was basically a matter of everyone rushing him and biting/chopping his head off. Fortunately, we had a god on our side so as not to have to deal with a potential Mythic Ascension.
I did like how the GM or the AP or both managed to turn the anti-semitic conspiracy theory on its head: it was the cavern-dwelling reptiles who were planning the race war, due to a patriarchal progenitor whose last words were "Kill All Humans" and a high priest who never let go of that anger. It was why the only two groups we did drive out were the Red Mantis and the Aspis Consortium. I was worried about serpentfolk explorers finding them first, and deciding humanity was still full of avaricious conquerors.
My favourite thing that I think was a GM addition was serpentfolk who tired of thousands of years of propaganda and who didn't want the race war. Between that and PCs who weren't sneering Chelish imperialists or foppish Taldans or what-have-you, the AP became less about "taming the savage jungle" or "we have to finish what Savinth started!" more of a focus was on inherited trauma and multilateral solutions.
While noticing references to other APs in this one, it got me to wondering: is there at least some mention of every other AP? It sounds like the sort of thing the writers would like to sneak in. So far, from what I've found:
Rise of the Runelords: This is a sequel to it.
Curse of the Crimson Throne: You get to go to Korvosa, and there's a big reference to its events.
Second Darkness: You get to go to Riddleport, and Teaching Drow How Not To Be Evil is a new thing.
Council of Thieves: In Book 2, a Chelish Diva from Westcrown sings a song.
Shattered Star: This is also a sequel to that.
Reign of Winter: Baba Yaga says hi.
Wrath of the Righteous: Nocticula meant what she said.
Strange Aeons: There's an Outer God in this one.
Tyrant's Grasp: There's an event that has nothing to do with this AP, but mentions it's important for that one.
Those are all I've found. Anyone noticed a reference to Legacy of Fire, Iron Gods, Rebels/Vengeance, or War for the Crown?
So, non-linear-time people try to kill you - and others try to help you - because you are *going* to upset linear time later on in the AP.
...But you're doing it all in order to stop Alaznist, who did it first, and worse. Will there ever be even a passing mention of Alaznist getting harassed by time dimensionals, so as to make this seem less unfair?
If not, I could probably find a way to add it in - perhaps, the first time Alaznist contacts the PCs, her angry rant gets interrupted when she gets jumped by another Hound of Tindalos pack and she has to waste a valuable spell slot to blast them all to bits.
Just to show that Time Itself isn't purely picking on the PCS - it's trying to stop everyone from messing with it, but nothing's been working.
Size and Type: Kerbals are Small humanoids with the kerbal subtype.
Crash-Proof: Kerbals receive DR (Character Level)/- when taking damage from falls, falling objects, or collision damage from any vehicle or starship crash.
Curious: Kerbals receive a +2 racial bonus to any two of the following skills: Computers, Engineering, Physical Science, Perception, or Piloting.
Fearless: Kerbals receive a +2 racial bonus to saving throws against fear effects.
Magic-Resistant: Kerbals receive a +2 racial bonus to saving throws against spells and spell-like abilities. This bonus stacks with Fearless.
Arriving in the Pact Worlds from the magic-dead world of Kerbin, these little green people bring with them a boundless exuberance for space travel and spacecraft design. Kerbal culture has little use for specialized academia, resulting in interdisciplinary scientists who are learned in many fields. Their culture also extols learning by doing, and improving upon past failures. Their surprising resilience has also resulted in a more lax standard of safety when compared to the Pact Worlds. Thus, while the more courageous Kerbals tend to be thrilled at the prospect of a risky venture into the unknown, other species end up seeing them as naive or foolhardy. However, Kerbals and their friends tend to be fiercely protective of each other, risking their own lives and equipment to see their friends home safely.
Being a peaceful species, Kerbal soldiers tend to be fascinated with the technical aspects of their armaments rather than their intended uses. Their envoys are full of idealism and optimism, and Kerbal operatives are renowned for their perseverance in the face of catastrophic failure. While new at the subject of magic, Kerbals approach it with the same excitement they do for any undertaking. Kerbal mechanics are renowned for their ability to fix anything, or their willingness to try.
Kerbals, lacking much in the way of familial ties, tend to put down "Family Name" on official documents as "Kerman", but Kerbals in the Pact Worlds have adapted to other cultures, and have begun coming up with their own family names. Given names tend to be of two syllables, such as "Philfry", "Benly", or "Jenslow".
The possessor of this fantastically bejeweled rod gains a +4 enhancement bonus to her Charisma score for as long as she holds or carries the item. Once per day, the rod garbs her in magically created clothing of the finest fabrics, plus adornments of furs and jewels.
Apparel created by the magic of the rod remains in existence for 12 hours. However, if the possessor attempts to sell or give away any part of it, use it for a spell component, or the like, all the apparel immediately disappears. The same applies if any of it is forcibly taken from her.
The value of noble garb created by the rod ranges from 7,000 to 10,000 gp (1d4+6 × 1,000 gp)—1,000 gp for the fabric alone, 5,000 gp for the furs, and the rest for the jewel trim (maximum of twenty gems, maximum value 200 gp each).
In addition, the rod has a second special power, usable once per week. Upon command, it creates a palatial tent—a huge pavilion of silk 60 feet across. Inside the tent are temporary furnishings and food suitable to the splendor of the pavilion and sufficient to entertain as many as 100 people. The tent and its trappings last for 1 day. At the end of that time, the tent and all objects associated with it (including any items that were taken out of the tent) disappear.
According to the text, the Rod of Splendor builds the tent on command, but the lack of "Upon command" as related to the bejeweled clothes looks like a typo to me.
Does the Rod of Splendour have a different command word to clothe its owner, or to the clothes just show up at random and fade 12 hours later or whenever the owner takes any of them off, whichever comes first?
(Personally, I'd say the rod would have different command words for the tent and the clothes, but now I want to think up a homebrew adventure where an intelligent Rod of Splendor who clothes you whenever, in whatever it wants is a plot point.)
I bought both Seven Swords of Sin as well as Artifacts & Legends, but I feel iffy about sending everyone through an intentionally deadly module and dumping the whole set of Blades of Conviction into their collective lap. So I've been thinking of a way to introduce the Alara'hai, with one sword showing up in each module (repurposing enough of SSoS to count as "Seven Chapters"). As I'm using Unchained Automatic Bonus Progression, the weapons will start out sleepy and unaware but will reawaken with practice and eventually demand that their wielders bring them to the place where they were built, in order to give them that final bit of polish that was lost to history.
The General Idea:
1) Nualia, rewritten Antipaladin of Lamashtu, got some friends to help stage a break-in when a certain historical weapons collector was out; she wields Garvok, greatsword of Wrath, and hopes dipping it in the Wrath Runewell will make it help her plans go faster.
2) In thanks for saving his life, Lord-Mayor Gorboras will ignore Shiela's warnings and allow someone to borrow Tannaris, bastard sword of Envy. They'll also learn about the whole set, that some of them were stolen, that talking swords can boss you around, and about virtues - the PCs could lie to the swords and claim to be new champions dedicated to serving their Runelords, or they could tell them about virtue and offer to reforge them according to principles as Emperor Xin first envisioned.
3) As thanks for helping Myriana in the Shimmerglens (or to help kill her, if they don't save her), some of the fey will show them where Ungarato, falchion of Gluttony, was hidden.
4) Shiela & Canavyn will let them know that Asheia, Longsword of Lust, was stolen by a lust enchantress by the name of Tirana. Last known location: Kaer Maga. They could either barge their way through her hideout, or lure her out with the temptations of their swords and fight her for them. She may offer to seduce them instead and steal their swords while they're all exhausted, but they'll most likely turn her down.
5)Enga "Baraket" Embermaw, rewritten kobold swashbuckler, found the Rapier of Pride in a hidden underground temple to the Peacock Spirit, and decided to accept this one giant's offer of alliance. Her plan is to help her boss enslave everyone, then kill him at his moment of triumph and destroy his entire empire, as Dahak would've wanted. As two PCs are kobolds from the same tribe as her, it's going to be emotional.
6) Arkrhyst, aka "Freezemaw", has Shin-tari, short sword of Sloth, which explains why he's been hibernating for so long. Then they go into Runeforge, and instead of doing what the AP originally says, they have to explore every wing of the place (with the possible exception of Greed), and bring back enough of a concentration of each sin to bring each sword into top form - whether sinful or virtuous. The latter case will cause an alignment shift in each blade that gets reforged in that way.
7) Chellan, scimitar of Greed, is being held by Viorian, and will only allow itself to be held by the Runelord's Champion. Either they'll scoop it into a bag of holding or leave it on the floor, only to return later and say, "I'm your new Runelord now!"
As our squad has two kobolds of high-DEX, low-STR, I hope they'll identify enough with the sins of the two Finessable blades; we also have a Polearm Fighter. If he doesn't want to swap out archetypes, Asheia would be down for all-natural blade enlargement, getting a longer hilt and counting as a polearm. In any case, the talking artifact weapons would all eventually be able to teach their wielders how to use them, granting them proficiency in their use. Also, they'll all agree to gang up on Chellan first.
I'd like to swap anecdotes with anyone who's tried playing as a syrinx. Since they haven't had much background information explained as of yet, is there anything you added to them?
Here's mine. I put her in the Emerald Spire (I figured all the low ceilings would limit potential natural-flight-at-low-levels issues, for one thing).
Kaia Reroor, LE Syrinx Arcanist:
The GM let me add in that Syrinx civilization pre-dated Earthfall, that they had briefly interacted with some serpentfolk who'd burrowed up under one of their mountains in ages past, and that they, and the aboleth, had declared each other arrogant idiots who'd stolen their ideas of bioengineering their own servitor race.
Also, due to their society being artsy, philosophical, and racist, I presumed they'd had limited contact with Flightless races - so she presumed them all to be violent, gullible, sex-crazed, god-fearing halfwits who believed that everything belonged to that individual. I summarized her to the GM as, "She's the racist owl lady who wants to interview the racist burrowing bug in order to show up her pen pal, the racist psychic fish." Hence, LE.
Kaia had undergone treatments to allow her to speak Flightless tongues better, which ended up giving her more flexibility regarding spells. She started off trying to disguise herself as human, fearing what the others would do to her when they found out, but as it turned out, all they ended up doing was blaming her for everything that went wrong. ("Shoot the bird!" became our group's unofficial motto)
I hoped, during character creation, that a team of Good people would help her deal with her cultural bigotry and facilitate a shift to LN, but instead, the rest of the group was all "Chaotic Neutral" and terrified her. She started out without any damaging spells, but eventually got several, which saddened her. Also, she was the target of multiple acts of humiliating comeuppance, since half of the non-Hellknight-related conflict in the module were her fault.
In the end, she got her interview, met a friend who she liked for preferring flight to the ground she'd crawled up out of, and took her back home so she could plan to liberate all the strix she'd found out where they went.
Fanatical Stare replaces Painful Stare, but not Hypnotic Stare. Does this mean he can only have either Hypnotic Stare active (with accompanying Boldness) against a foe, or Fanatical Stare active on a team-mate, but not both at once?
Since the standard Mesmerist's Painful Stare works as a part of Hypnotic Stare on the same target, it lower's the target's Will save and makes them take more damage; having Fanatical Stare active on a team-mate would do mostly the same thing, though the Fanatic buddy could get the attack/damage bonus on other targets. On the other hand, it sounds like they'd be mutually exclusive effects, seeing as you can Stare at only one person at a time. Then, it'd be a choice of, "Do I put my Boldness against that guy to slow him down, or inspire my friend to hit him harder?"
Characterization Tangent:
Also, I want to defy the expectation of Evil-aligned Mesmerists, by making a LG Cult Master from Alvis (in southern Andoran) who isn't starting a cult. Instead, he's a magical psychotherapist, giving self-confidence and focus to people who need it.
*tugs suspenders* "Now, I'm no big-city enchanter with a fancy spellbook or a fairy dragon, but I've learned that positive encouragement can do more for one's sanity than a whole cellar full of potions and scrolls."
This may not be what anyone would have had in mind, but it might make sense.
I also don't know if this is better-suited to the RotRL or ShSt board, which is why I put it in General Discussion.
Xanderghul being mythical, if he took the mythical ability where people can pray to you and get divine spells out of it, and if the Peacock Spirit was merely a title, then Xanderghul could have set up a literal cult of personality.
As the one and only Runelord of Pride, it sounds like a thing he'd want to do. Not only did the faith vanish along with him, but the connection was also lost over time (unless he never made the connection explicit).
We have one communist, one fascist, one anarchist, one neo-conservative, one crony capitalist, and one apolitical athiest extremist.
A seventh:
who can only show up for a few sessions before having to leave, is a wannabe womanizer who has loudly complained why there aren't any whores in all this uncharted wilderness. (Mysterious Stranger gunslinger/Oracle with the Nearsighted curse who's setting new standards of recklessness)
Everyone has been lying to, and keeping secrets from, each other, save one, who instead redesigned his character a few times at 1st level to find what suited him the best (as this is his first character).
We are now level 3, and nearly every decision we make ends with some form of unilateral action, usually resulting in violence. At least twice, half the team ended up attempting to subdue the other half over picking pointlessly unnecessary fights with potential allies.
We're all mature enough to find this embarrassingly hilarious, or hilariously embarrassing, but I fear for later on, when we actually have to be politicians. I really hope there is something in the Kingmaker books on how to handle a civil war, because it's already broken out and we haven't even mapped the whole place yet.
Due to peer pressure, I bought a 3DS and the Animal Crossing game for it. It's a fun little "on-the-bus", "design-your-house-and-town" sort of video game, and eventually, I got to make my own designs for clothes, flags and carpets in it.
The Setup
This group is new to Pathfinder, and more roleplay-focused than itching for fights. They have, however, had previous experience with other RPGs of different genres, letting me institute a pair of house rules:
One, convincing arguments and other, similar actions can modify, and potentially even supplant, social skill checks. Using an alternate, Persuasion system for Diplomacy, it can even handle PCs using it on PCs, and NPCs too.
Two, alignment is more fluid. Players write down the alignment they believe is right for their characters, but, based on their actions and intentions, their alignments can change without them realizing it. They would need a See Alignment or similar spell from a trustworthy source to stay sure of their own, or just keep striving away. Or, they could just find themselves hit by a Holy Smite or an Unholy Blight and come away strangely unharmed.
Characters (& Players)
Jack “Captain Calico” Colt, human gunslinger (Pistolero). Born or at least raised on a ship, he turned out to be a curious, helpful young man. Mildly annoyed of the favouritism toward his sister, instead he turned toward mastering his parents’ loud weaponry, practicing his skill and learning to stay calm in risky situations. A utilitarian without knowing the term, he always makes sure his crew is organized and his officers are loyal, though he tends to get depressed when people mistake his pistol for a wand and assume he’s a sorcerer.
(The player prefers the future to the past, having tried more cyberpunk stuff than high fantasy. He turned out to like the setting, especially the prospect of being the only pirate with a gun, but gets extra-annoyed when people bring their player issues into their characters)
Mia Andolini, half-aquatic elven ranger (freebooter). All her life, she wanted to be a pirate. Born in Westcrown from a father who decided to spend a twelve-year trip on land to “sample the surface flavour” and a mother who knew that her unfortunate experiment would disappear in the next clarity pyre, she never had the family she wanted. Brokering a deal with an “exploratory” ship and intentionally getting it captured via sabotage, she ended up getting around the Eye as she’d planned, so she could find or start a family of her own.
(Normally shy, she quickly hit on the character idea of “Mafia Pirate” and brought it home with her. She’s more interested in plotting than fighting, resulting in a bit more of a focus on negotiations than the AP normally has. While a skilled markswoman with her bow, her favourite weapon is still a hatchet that she brings with her just in case)
Peter Haripeth, human fighter (cad). Hailing from Cassomir, Taldor, he was dishonourably discharged from its navy and was press-ganged aboard various ships until he found himself in Port Peril. Though he considers himself a “chivalrous, suave gent”, his lack of self-awareness has made his consistent disrespect toward those of a different race, ethnicity or gender obvious to all but himself.
(He thought up a maneuver-oriented fighter with below-average Charisma and no social skills, but his first and foremost aim is nailing all the lady NPCs. His “Errol Flynn” concept ended up as a “White Man’s Burden” one instead, which is something of an outmoded oddity in this equal-opportunity setting)
“Spooky Miss” (No real name given), elf witch. *Dead* A Mwangi elf whose village was over-run by angry demonic apes, she fled with as much as she could carry. Ending up in Port Peril, she bought a fox from a bazzar with exotic caged animals, and suddenly found that her experiments with the arcane finally started paying off. Rather than head back and see what became of the rest of her village, she instead decided to look for ways to expand her knowledge.
(The player didn’t really want to try a pirate adventure, but was leaving the country in a month and was willing to try out the setting and system, both of which she liked. As a result, she refused to be a sea witch, pick a familiar that could swim, put any ranks in Sailing, or even take a campaign trait, going for Rich Parents instead. Her Str and Con were both 8, which I warned would make for a frustrating intro, but she decided to do it anyway so she could find something for her that she would like better after leaving)
Karynthia Colt, human gunslinger (Mysterious Stranger). Born and raised on a ship, she turned out to be a daring, cocky young woman. Raised and taught under her mother, Free Captain “Ol’ Riptide” Colt, she developed a boisterous attitude to cover her crippling shyness. Envious of her brother’s calm attitude, she made sure to craft her own personal style, unsure whether to take after Ol’ Riptide or make a different name for herself. When her mother left her to fend off pursuers, she sadly took command and received her inheritance, trying to rally an unsure crew under her natural charm.
(The only remaining player from an earlier attempt at running S&S, she was frustrated that her backstory never got the opportunity to pan out and wanted to try again as well. Since another player wanted to be a gunslinger and she didn’t want to start from the beginning again, she agreed to jump in later and made arrangements with him; since they both picked the Buccaneer’s Blood campaign trait, they both decided to merge backstories together with a shared famous family member. She also plans to pick up all the lady NPCs, which may lead to complications later)
Someone who'll get introduced later:
Erin Otuwe, human (actually Nosferatu dhampir) cleric (of Groetus, separatist). This man was born a Kuru, drinking blood and breast milk, pacified with a voidstick after a negative energy-scarred conception and birth. At an early age, his home was raided by the Aspis Consortium for voidsticks, survivors being beaten and sold into slavery. After a fight with sahuagin wiped out the Aspis agents, the survivors limped the ship to Senghor, sold the ship, split its remnants, and went their separate ways. Erin, keeping the name his captors forced upon him, used his share to learn to read, starting from religious texts. One that nobody wanted sparked his interest, and he began to worship Groetus in his own way: all things that begin must end, hastening the ends of others to prolong their own when necessary. Thus, he sees healing and undeath as similar favours, prolonging people who will meet or have met their ends. Groetus has warned that a black night will fall over the Shackles, but Groetus says that about everything all the time, so it probably isn’t anything for anyone around now to fear.
(After having to use the characters of players who didn’t show up, including one who gave me one but never did, the players asked me to just make up a GMPC. They asked for a cleric, preferably of Besmara, but I had a different idea in mind. I had to make him a separatist to get the Death domain (undeath), since Groetus doesn’t offer it for an undead-oriented cleric. I plan to avoid center stage with him, but his existence will provide points of contention with the others)
All around me for weeks, I've been seeing those fresh-faced rookies gush about how much they love it here in Magnamar. Sure, it's fun to hob-nob with its rich folk, without having to worry about some demon dame looking to pull your soul out through your urethra. When they sent me all the way to Osirion, I got promised I'd never have to come back to this ruined cesspit, and then they pull something like this. Nobody knows and hates the place like I do - I grew up there, so I should know - so what could I do but take the job?
Officially, I've been writing speeches on behalf of the Society, and helping watch over the Lodge, but twice now I've been sent out to keep those rookies from dying. I know this trash heap of a birthplace like the other sides of my shoulders, let's say, and if I find any lawbreaking Aspis goons or crooks calling themselves Pathfinders, I'll bring 'em in and have 'em locked up tighter than the Rough Beast.
Also, since I know you're gonna end up reading this, Torch, watch your mailbox. By the time you get that letter full of stuff I won't say in public, Sheila'll have already sent me out to do more of your leftover dirty laundry.
Say, how many times have you been called up by a venture-captain and got told something like, "Today I need you to check out something strange in Rahadoum, so I sent for the born-again Sarenite and the devil-worshipping Chelishman," or "I've gathered together you four, with your outdoorsiness and knowledge of poison to go to Geb and bring back this book on embalming"?
Yeah, just last week, after getting sent to the one place I hate the most - undergound - to fight people and not place 'em under arrest, I get shipped out to the one place to which I asked never to return: Magnamar. It's still a dump, and they sent me to the dumpiest area in it to find out who'd been killing people. Oh, I found the perp, all right, who got away thanks to my entire team deciding as a group to start thinking with the wrong head. It was all I could do to get 'em aiming in the right direction with their actual weapons.
Oh, and this week, when I got back? Yeah, turned out that the the only four they could send to investigate some thefts and muggings - Torch said don't mention religion, and don't use lethal force - were a big angry guy who looked like an ex-guard of Torch's, a grouchy Dwarf who kept comparing axes with the hybrid guy, a purported Tien princess on the run who didn't even speak Tien, and that sword-swinging Sarenite broad. Two men, one dog, an entire warehouse, and a damaged gazebo later, and they all got beat up by the perp who was on top of the gazebo I guess? When they came around, they all started complaining about how they didn't know what to do, since they didn't get sent along with a smart guy who could, say, use a sleeping spell or make a cloud or something.
How do those guys, with their magic blame-deflecting helmets, decide who takes what mission? Blindfolded darts or rolling dice? Or do they just look for the first four they could find to do the first thing that needs doing?
Look, I’m Censored sick of it. I’ve been in the ****ing Society f’r a while now, and any time someone asks me what I do – I can say “berserker” or “Brutal Pugilist” or “I’m the bloke who guards the spell-users and strangles the Omitted spell-users” – and they just say, “Oh, you’re a Barbarian” like I’m some half-orc half-dwarf NSFW who can’t even spell his own name. Look, just ‘cause I gotta write “Barbarian” somewhere on one of those forms (yeah, I can write. Both languages, too), doesn’t mean I’m Impolite “Barbaric”.
You wanna know how smart I am? 12! That's still above average. While those fancy pantsy geniuses write essays, I can at least get ‘em out when they’re lost in the desert; when that smug wizard’s all like, “Beep Monty, no-one told me I’d have to fly! I’m just ready to set fires!” I’ve already climbed up that thing that needs climbin' and dropped a rope. I can be careful! I can go around without a sword, and that’s not just ‘cause I can hit a guy without one.
Now, y’might say, “But Monty, fist-fighting’s dumb ‘cause you’ll get bigger numbers doing other Comment Removed”, but I’m not just in it for that: I can shut up the blokes who’re smarter than me, or knock out someone when killing everyone’s a bad idea. Besides, my numbers’re plenty big enough already.
Yeah, I’d agree that someone solves problems by losing his temper, he’s not gonna want boring niceties all day. But if you’d rather have a big, dumb, angry beast, just trap a giant Swearing badger!
I've been thinking about house rules to model a PF adventure on the Tales Series video games (Tales of Phantasia, Symphonia, the Abyss, Vesperia, etc), but I don't want to upset any balance issues.
Most issues can just be fluff-related (Hand of the Apprentice launching a shockwave instead of throwing your weapon, beginning with an Implanted Ioun Stone-style necklace or bracelet that does nothing at first until you spend the necessary money), but how would one go about emulating the big, flashy, once-per-fight-under-specific-conditions attacks they call Mystic Artes?
I figure I can use Hero Points, and the players can use one (1/day in this case) to get an immediate-action full attack, charge or pre-specified damaging spell upon an opponent that does something they specify beforehand; sort of like an extra readied action. Each player has to choose a different triggering condition (the first opponent to provoke an AoO, the first to damage a team-mate with a spell, the first to use an item), decide what immediate action they'll do, and what grandstanding thing they'll call out ahead of time. If that turns out to be too much, I could just add that they can only use Hero Points for the purpose of Mystic Artes and wouldn't make sure to avoid anyone doing the things that would set them off.
Besides, what soundtrack would be better for a fight with crazed, totalitarian celestials than "Beat the Angel"?
Say my marksdwarf (Dwarf crossbow-archetype Fighter) takes the Catch Off-Guard feat for his crossbow. Does this mean he gets Weapon Focus/Specialization bonuses when he wants to bash someone with his crossbow, or would it only apply to its original intended use of firing bolts?
Also, in case of any "Use a bow instead" responses, a heavy crossbow is heavier than a longbow, and - even though ranged attackers aren't supposed to do this - would most likely do more damage when used in improvised melee.
